Tonight when i got home, I put together a one sided horizontal algae scrubber to add to the system, based on what ive read on this forum and what I can do easily for now.

I have a mixed reef tank with a little nuisance algae and cyno that I can't shake and some sps that just won't color up. I do have a largish bio load and feed 1/2 sheet nori, 3 cubes and spectrum daily with weekly plankton feeds to the system.

I do weekly 20g NSW water changes and I've got it in my sump, a macro & LR section, a skimmer, large DSB and GAC, GFO, puragin & bio pellets in separate reactors.

The scrubber plate is going over the macro section and will have the full return flow (about 1500 lph) running over it. The lights are 2x24 w T5's (now with natural white - not actinic as shown) and are about 3inches above the scrubber. The canvas is roughed up as per instructions found on this site and is 40cm x 44cm.

A few things for improvement, but first, is the screen over the macro?

11-13-2012

Snoopy

Thanks
No doubt there is :)

The screen is over the macro for now. Ill harvest it all out on the weekend when i get time.

11-13-2012

SantaMonica

This means?

11-13-2012

Snoopy

Em- yes the scrubber is over the macro for now. (thats the only place it will fit and there is already some lights set up). However, I plan to remove the macro later when i get time.

11-13-2012

SantaMonica

Well the thing to realize is that the tank has a stronger photosynthesis that your macros do, which is why your macros have not pulled out enough nutrients to kill the nuisance algae and cyano. So ironically, a simple quick fix might just be to double the wattage on your macros, and don't do a scrubber.

As for the scrubber the way is is now, the screen is huge and the wattage is small. 16 X 17 = 272 square inches = 23 cubes of food per day if lit with enough light (408 real watts for horizontal). You have 48 watts, and only on a small part of the screen. If you want to keep this horizontal scrubber, after you remove the macros, you should reduce the width of the scrubber to match 4 bulbs (96 watts) side-by-side, which would be about 8 inches (20cm) wide, then lower the bulbs to within 2 inches (5 cm) of the screen with good reflectors, and increase the tilt so the water runs as fast as possible. This at least will increase the photosynthesis enough to stand a chance of overpowering the photosynthesis in the tank.

If you go this route, you'll want to remove the GFO and pellets, which will slow or stop the scrubber from growing.

Hope this help :)

11-13-2012

Snoopy

Thanks - this helps a lot

The reason for the (half assed) attempt is to see it working for myself first - then i would like to eventually remove the skimmer and reactors etc. I like the idea of pod production too as a bonus.

Ill post my progress

Cheers
Snoopy

11-17-2012

Snoopy

Okay so I've had lights on this for a few days now and the plastic is starting to brown up. I've put channels on the glass with strips of acrylic and cut the canvas to fit. The upside is that the water flow has tripled so I think the flow is about right. The downside is that the size of the scrubber has decreased from 272in2 to about 147in2.

Now beef up the light. An easy way would be clip-on CFL floodlights. I'd put about 4 X 40w.

11-22-2012

Snoopy

Well wk 1 and PO4 = 0.06 Hanna Checker Egg (a little higher then normal). The canvas was completely dark brown and covered on both sides which was a surprise. The algae washed off without scrapping so I roughed up the back side and gave the front a little more too.

I removed the puragin reactor as this was due for renewal (will gradually aim to remove all my other means of nutrient removal one at a time).